Alongside the Office of Vocation of the United Church of Canada, Montreal Dio organized Shared Way, Shared Witness: A Gathering on Ministry for a Collaborative Church. The four-day, three-night gathering met at the Villa Saint Martin in Montreal in May 2026 and drew more than 50 registrants, representing all 10 provinces. Participants in the gathering about equally represented Anglican and United Churches at a variety of levels, including theological students, congregational ministers, diocesan and regional leaders, and national staff. 

In his opening remarks, Andrew Richardson, co-director of the Office of Vocation and an organizer of the gathering, told participants that “Shared Way, Shared Witness comes out of a deep concern that our response to the end of the Christendom model of church is often inadequate, lacking in the resurrection hope that is at the centre of the Christian story. This gathering is meant to be different. It arises out of a fundamental belief that business as usual is not going to cut it. Our time together is meant to offer us the space to faithfully imagine new ways of being church.”  

The first full day of the gathering focused on the changing church. In two theologically rich and accessible keynote addresses from the Rev. Dr. Kayko Driedger Hesslein of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, participants explored what it means to be in the church when the church is not at the centre of society. Dr. Driedger Hesslein’s talks considered what it means to “Share the Way with the Stranger-Christ” and “Share the Witness as the Stranger-Church.” 

The second full day of the gathering focused on new approaches to Christian ministry. The lead speakers were the Rev. Steve Godfrey, canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, and Sue Godfrey, a priest in that diocese. The two speakers outlined the generation-long commitment the diocese has made to “mutual ministry,” an approach that focuses on raising up the gifts of members of the congregation and encouraging them to ask how they can be not a congregation gathered around a minister but a ministering congregation. 

“We know it is a time of great change in the church,” said Dio Principal Jesse Zink. “The models of ministry that we have been accustomed to in recent generations no longer work in the way they once did. What our speakers gave us was new questions and new ways of being in ministry together that can strengthen our witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.”  

On the final morning, participants gathered to think strategically about how to take the questions and approaches of raised in this gathering and bring them home and share them more broadly in our churches. Plans are developing for a network of people interested in collaborative approaches to ministry and a subsequent gathering is already in the works. 

Support for this gathering was provided by the United Church of Canada Foundation, the Nakonan:ka Regional Council, and the Diocese of Montreal.